E-Brake, Radio Failures Led To NYC Subway Collision: Feds

NEW YORK CITY — An operator on a subway train with faulty brakes never received a flagger's instruction to stop moments before a New York City subway collision and derailment that left 25 people injured, according to a report released Thursday.

The preliminary report by National Transportation Safety Board investigators details a cascade of problems that led up to the Jan. 4 collision in the tunnels near 96th Street station.

Richard Davey, president of New York City Transit, said investigators are looking into a communication breakdown between two MTA workers on one train — which was on its way to have its brakes fixed — that preceded the crash.

"We're going to look at every, not only the individual factors but processes, procedures that we could improve to make sure this doesn't happen again," he said during a Thursday news conference.

The problems began when an unruly straphanger triggered the emergency brake on a train about 2:10 p.m., according to the report.

MTA crews were unable to reset the emergency brakes, which prompted them to send the out-of-service train to a rail yard for repairs, the report states.

Doing so required a worker to cut out the brakes on the train's first five cars so it could be run by an operator from the sixth car, the report states. A flagger was positioned in the lead car to spot any problems, according to the report.

But the flagger told investigators that he lost radio communications with the train's operator near 96th Street station, where it came up on a 1 line train loaded with roughly 200 passengers, the report states.

"The transit system supervisor did not receive the flagger’s instruction to stop, the train passed by a signal requiring a stop at the end of the 96th Street Station platform, and the collision occurred," the report states.

The collision would normally be avoided because of trip-stops that activate a train's emergency brakes if it passes a signal requiring a stop, according to the report.

"Because the brakes on the first five railcars had been cut out, emergency brakes could not be activated by the trip-stop," the report states.

The investigation is ongoing and could lead to changes in how the MTA operates, Davey said.

"We're only going to improve from it," he said.